Firstly, I sprayed my journal page with water so that the more intense Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stain would have something to move around in. You don’t need to do this. You could spray the stain straight onto the paper. This would give a very bold colour! (Click on any of the images below for a closer look.)

Secondly, I gave the page one squirt with the Distress Spray Stain. You really don’t need much at all!

Another way to apply such intense stains is to use the end of the spray tube to drag the colour across the page. You can also add a small amount of stain to water and use them like a watercolour paint – i.e. with a brush.

To get the colour to move more, I sprayed it with extra water.

If you add enough water, you can make the colour run about on the page. Just tilt it this way and that.

You can even close the book and squish the colour between the pages. This will transfer the stain from one page to another like when you were a kid and wanted to make a butterfly print! This works best with the more intense colours. Be careful though: if you press too hard for too long, you might get bleed-through on thinner papers.

As I did in my previous post, you can spray on other colours while the first is still wet – this gives a blended appearance – but you can also spray other colours on after the first one is dry – this gives a more layered appearance. If this is the look you’re going for, it’s best to dry each application of colour with a heat tool.

Here, I dried the pink before spraying on the blue. Click on the images below to see the lovely splatter and layering you get when you dry the page between adding each spray.

And that’s it! How about you? Have you tried any branded sprays in your journal? Which ones work best for you?